Pakistan’s capital blocked off over anti-France protest

Pakistan authorities sealed off a major road into the capital Islamabad for a second day yesterday as a far-right religious party held fresh anti-France protests.  A rally in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi which attracted up to 5,000 people on Sunday spilled over into yesterday, with around a thousand protesters gathered at the roadblock preventing them from entering the capital. Commuters faced lengthy delays on alternative routes into the city. Pakistan has seen small and scattered protests over the past few weeks in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's recent remarks on Islam.  The French president spoke out after an extremist beheaded a teacher near Paris after he showed cartoons deemed blasphemous by Muslims during a class on free speech.